


Just a fire in your chest

by zinabug



Series: we're just a million miles from home [9]
Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Angst, Gen, How the FUCK does quicksilver blood work, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Jonny being GENTLE, Kinda?, Sorry if this is incomprehensible it’s not beta read and I wrote it at night, Suicidal Thoughts, The Aurora helps!, Whump, fire/burns, freezing to death but not actually dying and it’s your blood that’s killing you, poor nastya, self blaming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25445536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinabug/pseuds/zinabug
Summary: Here I am again. Jonny & Nastya and the cold.Title from but never a key by the dirt poor robins
Relationships: Jonny d'Ville & Nastya Rasputina, The Aurora/Nastya Rasputina
Series: we're just a million miles from home [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685929
Comments: 20
Kudos: 118





	Just a fire in your chest

Nastys’s breath fogged around her face with each painful exhale, as she stared at the ceiling. She could hardly fucking breathe, never mind move, all from the cold. She was tired too, exhaustion eating away at her, but she refused to give in. She was always tired, after all. 

She opened her mouth to try and speak, feeling her lips crack open and tasting quicksilver in her mouth. She was surprised the cold was going to get her before blood poisoning-  _ again.  _

Her voice cracked too, hardly a whisper and barley ineligible. It was shaking as much as her hands. 

“A-aurora?” She took a shaky breath. “I-I’m c-c-cold.” 

The ship creaked under her, and a warm breeze blew over her. She tried to somehow hold onto it, to move, hell, just to breathe, but she couldn’t. 

“P-please-“ 

The breeze blew again, giving her just enough strength to roll into her side into the fetal position. 

The Aurora did her best to pull Nastya back to the world of the living, but she could only do so much. Nastya wasn’t actively  _ dying  _ anymore, but she wasn’t quite alive either. 

Nastya staggered to her feet, her breath still coming in shaky clouds. She had to get back to the engine room, had to get out of there- go somewhere warmer. 

And  _ godfuckingdanmit  _ she couldn’t stop shaking. Every step  _ hurt _ , somewhere past her body, long ago numbed to any feeling. It hurt somewhere in her soul, if she even had one anymore. She just had to keep going, pushed on by bursts of warm air from the aurora. Keep walking. To somewhere warmer. 

She was just blindly following the Aurora, hoping it would take her to safety, when she ran directly into a pair of cold hands. Not corpse-cold, void-cold, like hers or Carmilla’s, but cold like human hands are supposed to be. Jonny. 

Nastya stumbled into his chest, burying her face in his shoulder. 

“Nastya! Fuck, you’re freezing- more then normal- Nastya?” 

She closed her eyes and opened her mouth, only feeling her lips crack and a faint gasp of air escape. So she cried instead, holding onto her brother like her life depended on it. After all, it probably did.

Eventually she realized he was trying to gently guide her along, one step after the other, his cold hands holding hers steady. 

It was less than ten steps. Ten steps to the engine room, to the only warm and safe place Nastya knew. Ten steps that could have lasted ten years. 

She collapsed onto the floor next to the engine, pressing herself against it. It burned her face and hands, but she welcomed it. 

Jonny kneeled down next to her, rubbing gentle circles onto her back. Her breathing came easier and she felt feeling come back to her body, as she finally warmed up. 

“Nastya? You okay?” Jonny asked after a while. “Well, y’know what I mean. Better or worse than the normal baseline of horrible.” 

Nastya coughed. “‘Bout level with the normal horrible. I-I almost froze to death just because I  _ fucking exist _ .” 

She sat up, feeling the burns from the engine healing. It itched. 

Jonny nodded. “Do you feel better now? I-I’ll make some tea.” 

Nastya nodded and turned around, predating her back against the engine. Not the actual engine, of course, that would be hot enough to kill her, but the outer wall. There was an access hatch. Nastya stared at it and thought about dying in fire, and wondered if she would finally be warm. 

Jonny handed her a cup of tea, and she faintly smiled at him. It wouldn’t do much, but it was nice to hold. 

He sat down across from her while Nastya took the first sip of her tea, holding the cup in her stiff and trembling hands. It was technically too hot to drink, but she ignored that. 

Jonny sighed. “I’m sorry. For… hell, I’m not sure. Not being there? For letting Carmilla do this to you in the first place?”

Nastya just took another sip of tea. Jonny would always blame himself for whatever had happened to her, even if it was her own fault, and she never knew how to respond. He always went back to her mechanization. Always. 

“It’s okay.” She said. “Really. It was my own goddamn fault this time.” 

Jonny shook his head. “No, I wasn’t there for you.” 

Nastya leaned forwards. “Stop  _ fucking  _ blaming yourself. It’s okay.” 

Jonny nodded. Nastya knew he hadn’t stopped, just shut his mouth. She took another sip of tea to fill the silence. Jonny wasn’t very good at making tea. She supposed it was the thought that counted and took another sip.

Above her, the Aurora creaked and a just of steam hissed out of the shadows. Nastya smiled and turned around to plant a kiss on the engine. It burned her face. She didn’t care. 

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what happened here. Have a good day.


End file.
